My husband and I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Metairie, LA the evening before. They have a stay,cruise and park plan which includes shuttle pickup to and from the Julia Street Port. Our embarkment was painless. We were onboard ship and eating at Versailles Restaurant before 12:30pm. The staterooms were announced as ready before we left our table. We spend the afternoon exploring the new ship(to us),and finally relaxed in our balcony stateroom. Our safety meeting was at 4:30 and our biggest problem of the day was finding our assembly station. It was M1 inside the Aqua restaurant midship. We expected everyone to assemble outside on deck. We shared a table with 2 other couples for our evening dinner at Versailles. The free style dining was wonderful. There was never any waiting for us, party of 2, and we usually shared a table. There were so many interesting couples on this cruise. We took in the evening entertainment led by cruise director, Kyle, in the Stardust theater. I was not impressed with the seating arrangments of this theater compared with the Spirit, but I did get used to it by the end of the cruise. The first night was the least impressive of the evening entertainment, but it improved as the week went along.

I must jump ahead to the closing night entertainment in the Stardust. It is Elements, a combination of all of the entertainers! It is an amazing performance. Please don't miss it! Plus Kyle, your cruise director, had an amazing send off with the crew there to say goodbye.

Our week was a blur of activities, meeting new people, enjoying excursions and, of course, eating delicious foods! We did not eat in any of the extra fee restaurants. We were very happy with the food selections at the Versailles or Aqua. Sunday night is surf and turf, so don't miss that one! Delicious! Read more